# crystal-lang/crystal

The Crystal Programming Language

Repository: https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/crystal
Homepage: https://crystal-lang.org
Language: Crystal
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: crystal, hacktoberfest, compiler, crystal-language, programming-language
Last push: 2026-08-26T17:08:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 97/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 93, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5027, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 48, "gap_med": 13, "n_releases_24m": 22}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 20388, forks 1693 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:30.086614+00:00)

## What it is
Crystal is a general-purpose, statically type-checked programming language with Ruby-inspired syntax that compiles to efficient native code. It features advanced type inference, compile-time macros, C bindings, and lightweight fibers for concurrency, accompanied by the Shards dependency manager.

## Use cases
- write fast compiled programs with Ruby-like syntax
- build a high-performance HTTP server or web backend
- call C libraries without writing C code
- learn a statically typed language that feels dynamic
- build concurrent network services with fibers and channels
- compile CLI tools to native binaries

## When to choose
- you want Ruby's developer ergonomics with C-like runtime performance
- you need static type safety without verbose type annotations
- you want compile-time code generation via macros to avoid boilerplate
- you need lightweight concurrency for I/O-bound services

## When to avoid
- you need full Windows support in production (still preview)
- you require Ruby compatibility or its gem ecosystem
- you need a very large third-party library ecosystem like Python or JavaScript
- you need mature parallelism guarantees out of the box (parallelism is opt-in)

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: compiler, programming-language, type-system, concurrency, cli, package-manager
- domain: programming-languages, compilers, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli
- tags: crystal-language, ruby-like-syntax, static-typing, type-inference, fibers, native-code, shards, c-bindings, macros, open-source, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- crystal-lang/crystal (main) score 97

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:30.086614+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:59:00.846960+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:30.086614+00:00, sha 3a9b270bc6b2)
  - homepage: https://crystal-lang.org (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.828785+00:00, sha d00f425a790c)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/install (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.838251+00:00, sha fe6dcf1d35db)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/reference/guides/concurrency.html (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.845142+00:00, sha 257cf9a0473b)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/reference (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.840117+00:00, sha 55caad28bee7)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/api (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.841822+00:00, sha 872531dfb518)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/reference/syntax_and_semantics/types_and_methods.html (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.843675+00:00, sha d60e6e3331b1)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/reference/syntax_and_semantics/macros.html (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.847027+00:00, sha 1e9df458cd47)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/reference/latest/man/shards (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.848435+00:00, sha be83d54b7239)
  - site_page: https://crystal-lang.org/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:44.850147+00:00, sha eedc61b43f67)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.